3D-Printed Clothing Hits the Paris Runway

Stratasys Ltd. and Materialise have printed 3D clothing pieces that were worn on the catwalk of Paris Fashion week in the Iris van Herpen's haute couture show, "Voltage."

Two pieces out of the 11-piece collection were 3D printed. One creation, a cape and elaborate skirt, was 3D printed by Stratasys and created with Neri Oxman, an artist, architect, designer, and professor from MIT's Media Lab. Stratasys's Objet Connex multi-material 3D printing technology was used. This technology can use a variety of material properties to be printed into a single build, which allowed both soft and hard materials to be used to give the piece movement and texture.

Fashion designer Iris van Herpen collaborated with Neri Oxman to create this cape and skirt that was 3D printed using Stratasys' Objet Connex.

"The ability to vary softness and elasticity inspired us to design a 'second skin' for the body acting as armor-in-motion; in this way we were able to design not only the garment's form but also its motion," said Oxman, in a press release. "The incredible possibilities afforded by these new technologies allowed us to reinterpret the tradition of couture as 'tech-couture' where delicate handmade embroidery and needlework is replaced by code."

The other creation, an intricate dress, was 3D printed by Materialise and created with Julia Koerner, an Austrian architect and lecturer at UCLA Los Angeles. The piece has intricate lace-like texture that was created with precision through laser sintering and is described as being a flexible, soft dress.

Julia Koerner, in the press release, said:

My collaboration with Materialise for the 3D-printed dress reveals a highly complex, parametrically generated, geometrical structure. The architectural structure aims to superimpose multiple layers of thin woven lines, which animate the body in an organic way. Exploiting computational boundaries in combination with emergent technology selective laser sintering, of a new flexible material, lead to enticing and enigmatic effects within fashion design. New possibilities arise such as eliminating seams and cuts where they are usually placed in couture.

Designer Iris van Herpen wanted to collaborate with Oxman after seeing her "Imaginary Beings: Mythologies of the Not Yet" collection that was featured in Paris last spring. The collection was 3D printed by Stratasys's matchless Objet Connex multi-material 3D printing technology.

Oxman said:

This project has taken 'Imaginary Beings' to 'Wearable Beings,' myths that one can wear. The original collection includes 18 Stratasys 3D-printed prototypes for the human body inspired by Jorge Luis Borges' The Book of Imaginary Beings. They are human augmentations inspired by nature; but not all wearable. For Iris' collection at Paris Fashion Week it was important to take the series to the next level, thinking not only about form and materials, but also about movement and wearability. It inspired us to design algorithms that could map physical movement and material behavior to geometrical form and morphological variation in a seamless and continuous wearable surface.

Designer Iris van Herpen, in the press release, added:

I find the process of 3D printing fascinating because I believe it will only be a matter of time before we see the clothing we wear today produced with this technology, and it's because it's such a different way of manufacturing, adding layer-by-layer. It will be a great source of inspiration for new ideas.

Oxman's 3D printed skirt and cape will be exhibited at Massachusetts Institute of Technology's media lab following the Paris Fashion Show.

If these 3d printed clothes become popular then what I feel is branded clothes industry will go down. Because people usually take these clothes because of their customization but 3d printed clothes will be more customized.

Charles as you said it will help us make or manufacture less expensive clothes, I have some queries regarding this . If this technology will actually help us make less expensive clothes because the cost of these printers according to my knowledge is very high . I am just wandering will this technology help us make less expensive clothes or expensive one .

Robbie I agree with you as you said it is very early to talk about 3d printed clothes but we all can see where thye technology is moving and with what pace it is moving it is no time we will be using this technology in our households even. It might take time but it will beused even with some modifications .

When 3d printing will become popular in clothing it will be very usefull in making customized clothes that can easily fit to individuals not only this but it will help individuals to generate the clothes for emergency gathyerings or parties avoiding the hassel of going to the tailor and then collecting the clothes from them

Thanks Lauren for such an interestig post , No doubt these days 3d printing is becomming very popular and it will be the future technology very soon . Very soon we will be entering into the phase when the conept of tailor will not be ikf completely eliminated wil be reduced to some extent and it will be usefull and helpfull in many ways .

Obviously 3D printed dresses are possible, but what about 3D pants? From the way the dresses look, they won't be a real possibility anytime soon. You can get amazing pants on http://www.khwanpants.com/pants, so they won't be missed either.

That's really impressive. 3D printing has managed to leave a footprint in this industry too. Fashion is definitely one of those fields that could use some new technology breakthroughs. The jewelry industry is also marked by 3D printing. Take a look at these beautiful rose gold engagement rings, they are just perfect pieces, aren't they?

I have to admit, the idea of using 3D printing to create clothes is amazing, but I think it's too soon for this type of clothes to become mainstream, they look too unconfartable. If you want to gain attention by shocking people with futuristic clothes, then they are right for you, but if you just want to feel and look cool you should visit website, you might find exactly what you're looking for.

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